3 Breaths by L.K. Collins

3 Breathsdefinitely had a lot of feels, but unfortunately the feels weren’t enough for me.

The book starts with Zoe and Krane celebrating their engagement with friends. but on their way home, Zoe has a seizure attack and passes away. Fast forward 5 months, Krane is still reeling from the loss of his beloved. He has let himself go; surviving solely on booze and underground fights. The only light in his dark tunnel is Ivy, Zoe’s sister. While neither his family nor friends understand his pain, Ivy surely does. She is the only one who does.

Ivy too has trouble dealing with her sister’s death, especially since they had grown apart in the last few months of Zoe’s life. With her death, Ivy is reeling with guilt and pain. Her only solace is her sister’s fiancée, Krane.

The pain of both Ivy and Krane is very palpable. You can actually feel their hearts breaking, you can feel them spiraling down. This is one of the most emotionally draining book that I’ve read. But on the flip side, while both Ivy and Krane work as individuals, they didn’t work as a couple for me.

Since Zoe’s death, Krane has not even looked at anyone else. But when one fine day he notices Ivy’s ass, he feels guilty, because well he is checking out a woman who is not Zoe and just to spice things up a bit, he is ogling his dead fiancée’s sister. That was all well and good, until the same night he sleeps with a woman, in part to get back at his high-school girlfriend who cheated on him, but didn’t feel an ounce of guilt.

Now mind you, I have no problems with men who sleep around, as long as they stay faithful and monogamous when they are with a particular woman. But hypocrisy doesn’t work for me. So if Krane felt guilty for ogling a woman who was not his fiancée, then he should have felt guilty for sleeping with someone else too. And he sleeps with two someone else’s, with no guilt whatsoever.

What I didn’t like was that Ivy was no different from the other two women Krane slept with. When he first notices Ivy, Krane says that Ivy is making him feel things (including lust). But he is just as turned on when he meets Casey and Shannon. How does that make Ivy special? I could get over this tiny issue, if only I felt some chemistry of the true love kinds, between Krane and Ivy. They work as best friends, they even work as friends with benefits, but I am not convinced that they are in love with each other.

One thing that L.K.Collins surprised me with was that Zoe was not an issue with Ivy and Krane. They both knew that Krane really loved Zoe, but Ivy was never insecure about that fact, which I absolutely loved. But I also didn’t appreciate the over-dependence that Krane and Ivy have on each other. They stop talking for a week and in that week they both spiral so far down the drain. They were way too dependent on each other, which in my opinion is unhealthy in a relationship.

I also never understood how they came together. One fine day Ivy asks what they were doing and Krane says he doesn’t want to hurt her. A fight, and a one-night stand later, Krane and Ivy make up and poof, they are together. I was never a fan of intsa-love, but here I didn’t even see it coming. All I could see was Ivy and Krane having a lot of sex together, but no love, even if it was there. Add to that the ending that came out of nowhere. If I didn’t see Ivy and Krane in a relationship, I definitely didn’t see the wedding coming. I find it hard to believe that a man would mourn for months after her looses his beloved fiancée, but within a month of dating another woman, he is ready to marry her. Ivy and Krane’s relationship has been on the fast track since Zoe’s death.

The secondary characters were also mostly a likable bunch. I adored Logan. He was a really good friend to Krane and a good man to have in his corner. L.K. Collins has a flair for writing complex characters and a heart-wrenching story.

3 Breaths is a good book. The author has beautifully portrayed the pain and anguish the characters go through, but there were way too many things that didn’t work me for.